Big Temple(Brihadeeshwarar Temple) -Thanjavur

                   Arulmozhivarman, a Tamil emperor who was popular as Rajaraja Chola I laid out foundations of Brihadeeswarar Temple during 1002 CE. It was first among other great building projects by Tamil Chola. Main purpose of building this temple was to grace throne of Chola Empire with compliance of one command Rajaraja Chola I receive in a dream. Grandeur and scale is in Chola tradition. A symmetrical and axial geometry rules layout of this temple. Temples from same period and two following centuries are expressions of Tamils Chola power, artistic expertise and wealth. Emergence of these types of features, such as multifaceted columns along with projecting signals of square capitals signifies arrival of Chola style, which was new at that time. Brihadeeswarar Temple’s build was like one royal temple for displaying emperor’s vision for relationship and power to universal order. This temple was one site of primary royal ceremonies, such as anointing emperor and to link emperor with Shiva, its deity and deity’s daily rituals was a mirror of those by king. It is one architectural exemplar, which showcases true form of Dravida kind of architecture in temples and is a representative of ideology of Chola Empire and Southern India’s Tamil civilization. Brihadeeswarar Temple “testifies to Chola’s brilliant achievements in architecture, painting, bronze casting and sculpture.”

A wish for establishing such a huge temple as per saying of people occurred to then king Raja Raja, who was staying as one emperor in Sri Lanka. Brihadeeswarar Temple is first among all buildings, which make use of granite fully and it finished within five years from 1004 AD to 1009 AD.

First All Granite Temple

The first ever temple in the whole world that has used granite in its construction and is also the world’s tallest temple is the Brihadeeswara temple. The area where the temple is located has no sign of having granite even in its nearby areas. The source of having a large quantity of granite that has been used in the temple construction has yet not been known. There is no pit of granite in the 100 km radius where the temple is constructed and hence it has been calculated that a huge logistics would have been required to move the stone to construction site. Other than granite being difficult to find, it is even harder to carve the granite. The temple was built by the Chola community who wanted to cover the entire temple with the complex carved designs.

Till Date it’s the tallest temple

The construction of the temple took almost a time of seven years that also included the movement of the granite from an unknown source to the construction site. It has been estimated that every day almost 50 tons of rock was brought, carved and then aligned for the completion of the temple. In 1003 CE, the construction of the temple was completed and it was ranked as the countries tallest temple with a magnitude order of 10. This temple has still been the tallest temple of the country with the total height of 216 feet. The Vimana also known with the name “airplane” stands on the top of the temple holds a weight of almost 80 tons. One of the main attractions of the Brihadeeswara temple is that the tower of the temple stands on the altars has higher elevation than the towers that stand on gourami located on the temple entrance. At the time of twilight, the light lighted on the top of the dome appears like a shining planet.

Musical Pillars

The altar located at the entrance of the temple has two idols of Lord Ganesha. When one taps any one of the idol, it produces a sound that travels towards the other idol traversing through the stone at one end while metal towards the other end. The dancers and musicians performed for Lord Shiva in main hall of the temple. Various pillars of the temple produce different musical sounds.

Tower-Gopuram

80 tons of Granite to a 216-foot tower (Gopuram) 

The temple is constructed in layers. It would take less space and less effort comparing to other methods. Sand in poured in large amounts as shown in the figure to move around and place the rock at the center. Moving in circular path makes you feel less tired and that is why you have circular stair case.There is a huge hollow in the temple which makes it even more magnificent as to how the load balancing happened. The temple even survived 6 earthquakes.

Building material

Stone cutting

The temple is completely made up of sandstone and granite. And the Kumbam is completely made of granite. But how did they manage to cut granite, one of the hardest stone, back in 11th century AD?They did that using wooden wedges. Using blunt chisels they drill adjacent holes on the rock and insert dry wooden wedges. The wedges are watered frequently. The expansion of soaked wedges crack the rock.This technique of splitting granite is attributed to the Egyptians.

Construction method

rock cutting

Sarukai (means slide in Tamil) near main Thanjavur town, from there they gently pushed the stone to the top using rollers and elephants. Humans Pushed the Stone where Elephants are utilized for Pulling.Whatever may be the weight of  Granite Stone and Size, he technology used by Cholas Raja is  the Straight  Ramp on four Sides / Three Sides of Temple Tower. The Straight Ramp will be starting  from maximum distance  away  temple to  mentain the slope below 45degree. Ramp on four sides will be ending on a Temporary Working  Platform  of 35 foot  to 50 foot wide around the  Temple  Stone Structure . height of this  working platform and Ramp will be increased according to the  progress of work / height of Temple Structure.

Method of Lifting Stones through the Ramp 

Always  top level of  Ramp  will match  withy the height of Temple Structure .Stones to be lifted will be shifted to the plane area near the Ramp by using the Traditional Old  technology  used by Khalaasi Team . When Nine compartments of Island Express fall down to Vembanad Lake( in Peruman near Kollam ) in an Accident happened in 1988, Khalasis have taken out Five bogies when our Engineering Team from Army  taken out only  Two compartments by using Modern Equipment. Khalasi  is  the name of a  Trained  Team  of people with traditional Equipmet like Winch made of Heavy Wooden Pieces. Every Raja Maintained this well built team for loading and unloading work of Heavy materials without any accident . This Khalasi are played a key role in all construction activities of that Era.  They will tie ropes to the Stone and these Ropes will be Pulled by Elephants and People standing on the Ramp in the opposite Side of Temple . In a single day  they will not be able to shift the Stone to top level. So they will stop the stone , where it reached at the end of the day, by using proper packing and tying the Ropes on Heavy Stone on opposite direction of Temple .

History of Khalasi Team

Khalaasi are the people trained traditionally for Shifting / Lifting of Heavy  Materials Safetly. They were hard working and having good body structure . Now also we can see the team of Khalaasi in all Heavy Industries in Karnataka & Tamil Nadu. All the erection work in Bannari Amman Sugar Mill in Nanjangud near Mysore is done by Khalasi Team. I have seen the work and got opportunity to interact with them. Basically first they were trained by Engineers in Engineers in British Army also. Now they were available in Mangalore to Kozhikode  in ,Kerala, Costal area of TamilNadu and Karnataka.

Special Features

It can survive 6 Earth Quakes and till Now Standing Today for about 1000 years.It completed the 1000 age in 2010. 

The postoffice published the stamp of big temple in 2010.Our Ancestor construction is great construction in world .
visit web page